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If you are like me you will probably really like this game despite its shortcomings. If you are constantly wandering the intertubes looking for a game that isn't WoW and is actually skill, rather than gear oriented; you've probably been dissappointed in your quest like me. While I have indeed found some MMOFPS games, none of them were really great combat experiences. I could always just play Call of Duty and have more fun.

S4 League is different in this regard. It plays like a combination of a shooter and a platformer. The combat is very fast paced and visceral. It accomplishes this by having a good melee combat system that is actually very fun. It also allows for acrobatics with wall jumps, anchors (think hookshot), flying, sprinting, dodging and charges. These elements combine together to allow for plenty of dimensions for your personal skill to expand in. It manages this without anything feeling glaringly overpowered.

I haven't played all the levels yet; but, the levels I have played have been well designed. They each favor certain styles of gameplay; but, always provide plenty of opportunity for using all of the moves. Most of the levels have destructible elements that make combat very interesting in touchdown mode (basically capture the flag). You can choose to use destructible walk ways to take short cuts; but, someone could shoot these out from under you. However, if you are prepared for this you can recover from the ground literally falling out from under you.

S4L is a classless game that makes all of the weapons and skills available right away, provided you earn the "licenses" to use them. These licenses require a brief training exercise and then a test you must pass. This would be a big drawback to those who play MMOs for progression primarily. However, since this game heavily favors PvP, having the game not be progression dependent is one of the selling points. If you are an FPS veteran you can jump into this game and level 1 and do quite well against even much higher level players. The levels really do nothing to your character stats and mainly just serve as an indicator of how seasoned of a player you are. They do create certain unlocks like the ability to make more characters and different costume styles.

S4L is a free to play game with an item mall. This might seem like a deal breaker for a competitive PvP game. However, it really doesn't make much difference. The items you purchase only give you a marginal advantage and you can do very well just by using the earned in game currency (PEN).

The biggest area I feel this game is lacking in is having some kind of a skill specialization system. Character customization is overall more limited than I would like.

S4L also has a peer to peer model rather than a central server model which makes it vulnerable to hacking.

Finally the biggest problem I have with this game is the limited population. Currently you may have difficulty finding a game during off peak times on the English servers. If you can find one you will probably have to play on the EU servers. As someone from the US this means higher pings. This is my primary agenda for posting this review. Hopefully to convince some people to pick this game up and give it a try. It's worth it. We need more people on the North American server!!